Ideas for a fey challenge

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Igor the Henchman
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Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Igor the Henchman »

I'm in need of some fresh inspiration to design a "final boss" encounter for my current adventure.

Here's the setup. The campaign takes place in and around a seemingly normal tepestani village situated on the eastern edge of the Brujamonte. The PCs are simple residents from that village, with regular jobs like blacksmith, tavern-keeper, brewer and the like. The players all enjoy good storytelling and roleplaying. The group is still 2nd level. They've had experience dealing with fey in the past, but not a lot.

In a previous session, the PCs discovered that the innkeeper's daughter had been replaced by a fey impostor (actually an evil-aligned satyr who wished to partake in the merriment of the local winter festival). The real innkeeper's daughter had been freshly murdered by the satyr, and her ghost has been trying to get the PCs to avenge her death. Long story short, the PCs discovered something was amiss, confronted the fey impostor at the village dance and forced him to flee into the woods. So far so good, but the satyr is still alive and seeking revenge on the heroes for spoiling his fun.

In the next session, I plan for the satyr to harvest the heads of four village NPCs while the heroes investigate the ghost activity. He will magically keep the heads alive, while leaving the bodies to dance mindlessly in the woods. The PCs will have to confront the satyr to recover the heads, plus some magic tree sap that can restore the villagers to the way they were. I want the players to have two ways to deal with the final encounter: a combat encounter or a noncombat magic challenge. In the second scenario, the satyr will essentially challenge the PCs to a magic game of some sort, with each PC betting something precious to them for a chance to win back one of the heads.

Now, if the PCs don't want to play the satyr's game, this will turn into a regular boss fight. But since they've been humbled by a near-TPK recently, I'm expecting the players might think twice before going into direct combat.

Here's my problem, though: I'm drawing a blank as to what the challenge encounter might be. I need something both grim, suitably bizarre, yet suitable for different classes (the group has 2 fighters, a paladin and a cleric) and appropriately climactic.

I still have about a week before the final showdown, and I guess I'm looking for inspiration. Help a stuck DM out? Any ideas at all would be most welcome. :)
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Could the challenge have to do with their day jobs? Beat the sartyr in blacksmithing while his minions throw darts and stuff at you? A brew-off, with the some other fey-like creature as the taste-tester? (I'm thinking a treant for some reason.)

I picture a sort of "Devil went down to Georgia" vibe.

I dunno, too goofy?
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Nox »

Maybe you could involve the heads.
Those heads are from Villagers right?
Maybe the players need to find out the worst secret of those villagers (it could be something terrible, or something stupid) and fix their mistakes.
Alternatively you could think of some kind of puzzle game to play with. Another idea is to have the satyr set up a labyrinth with the 4 head hidden in the maze(after they accept to play his game). You could add a wandering creature to the labyrinth (Minotaur? :lol:) to add some suspense and maybe a fight. Set up traps. Add some puzzle to unlock certain pathway (magically blocked by roots) .
You could even mix up all of those thing (the satyr will propose the player a chance to save the 4 villagers, but they have to play with him. But in order to have the possibility to play in his game they must worthy
players needs to do some investigation to discover heads worst secret, then they can join the game of the satyr, at this point the satyr set up the maze. You can choose to have the big bad beast of the labyrinth show up for a brief moment letting the players know that the beast is hunting no them. Or not. )
I have plenty of ideas but those are the best I came up with.
Of course if your players do not accept to play the game the villagers are condemned.
You can keep those heads identity hidden and force some more investigation on the dancing headless bodies to find out who is actually missing and only then find out their secrets.
Just brainstorming. I suppose I gave you enough ideas! Let me know what you think.
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Lord_Pruitt »

The evil satyr could challenge the paladin to a drinking contest; the cleric to a dancing contest; one of the fighters to a musical challenge; and the last fighter to an arm wrestling contest. These could be just to start the magical contest.

Or since the PCs are from the same village, the satyr could hide the heads through out the village and the PCs would have to use their local knowledge, as well as magic, in order to find the heads. Then they might have to chase down the dancing headless villagers, and place the correct head on the correct body. This isn't very magical; in fact, I guess it's more like a mystery to solve.....
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by DustBunny »

Hmm. How vindictive is the Satyr and what external resources can he call on?

For the vindictiveness...
- Does he just wish to humiliate the PC's or kill them outright?
- Will he make the tasks/challenges funny, embarrassing or (supposably) impossible?
- Is he a good sport? If the PC's win will he clap his hands and say "Good game. I hope we can play again some time" and uphold the bargain, or make them his personal 'hate' project.

For external resources...
- Can he call in other fey to 'join the fun'
- How much is 'off the cuff' planning and how much is prepared (mazes, fey dances, etc)
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Igor the Henchman »

Thanks everyone for the great ideas! Most of you came up with stuff I hadn't remotely considered, which is extremely useful for me. I haven't made my mind yet, several possibilities look appealing. Although I do keep coming back to Lord_Pruitt's "hide the heads and let the PCs search for them" suggestion, since Easter is coming... :lol: :twisted:
DustBunny wrote: - Does he just wish to humiliate the PC's or kill them outright?
Both options are in character for him. Earlier in the adventure he's killed the innkeeper's daughter by throwing her into a bed of bloodroses, and when her pet dog tried to defend her, he burned the animal alive. He then started playing cruel pranks on the villagers to try and turn them against each other. Finally, he beheaded a domestic goat belonging to a PC, replaced the head with that of a villager with whom the PC had a quarrel, then brought it back to life. He has no compunction against killing, but he enjoys tormenting mortals most of all.
DustBunny wrote: - Will he make the tasks/challenges funny, embarrassing or (supposably) impossible?
Ideally, something in between. Embarrassing and funny is good, but he sees himself as an artist, not a clown. He plans to entice the PCs by making them think the task is feasible and make the penalty for losing harsh but bearable (voice, beauty, happiest memories, stuff like that). If the PCs accept, he'll then announce that the penalties will actually be paid by their friends (at start of game, I had each player come up with a villager NPC who is their best friend and another who is their enemy), rather than themselves. What I'm trying to say is that his main motive is to cause as much suffering as he can, by whatever means he can.
DustBunny wrote: - Is he a good sport? If the PC's win will he clap his hands and say "Good game. I hope we can play again some time" and uphold the bargain, or make them his personal 'hate' project.
In fairy tales, fey are usually bound to uphold bargains they make, so he'll be a 'good sport' in that sense. I don't think he's the kind to keep an enemies' list. He's childish and evil, but too mercurial to hold a grudge for long.
DustBunny wrote: For external resources...
- Can he call in other fey to 'join the fun'
Definitely possible. I've already given him a couple of minions. These are lesser spirits who had lost a bet against him. One is a hearth fiend imprisoned in a magic lantern, another is a powrie transformed into a fiddle-playing carrionette. Other minions could be possible. Or he could have fey allies who are maybe fans of his music.
DustBunny wrote: - How much is 'off the cuff' planning and how much is prepared (mazes, fey dances, etc)
He's definitely had time to plan and prepare, and I'm willing to give him any magical resources he needs to pull it off.

Actually, if more context helps, here's additional details on the satyr. He hails from Dementlieu and calls himself Jean Ritournelle (a play on his real name). A recent encounter with monster hunters have forced him to flee to Tepest, a domain he considers primitive and extremely boring. As a sylvan fey, he is not beholden to serve either Maeve and Loht, but has some connections among the Unseelie Court. His two minions (the lantern spirit and the powrie-turned-carrionnette) would turn on him in a heartbeat if they could. If the PCs kill him, he will join Tristessa's court as a widderrìbhinn, and possibly will oppose the heroes again if they visit that domain.


So, again, thanks again to everyone who gave me ideas! I still have time to prepare the game, so you've got more, keep them coming! :D
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by DustBunny »

Okay, some random ideas. I tried to cull the really silly ones but caveat emptor. :)

The PC's are challenged to a 'piggyback race'. The PC who volunteers to be the 'pig' is actually transformed into a pig (or a wereboar), and the second PC's has to ride them (grease optional). Of course, no one said they were going to be changed back...

A hunting game, let’s say a fox hunt. That nice tavern girl is turned into a fox and the PC's have to hunt her. And to make things more interesting we will add some other hunters *turns other villagers into dogs*. Have fun.

With the fiddle-playing carrionette definitely have either 'Duelling Banjos' or a 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' play off. To help them a bit, maybe the Powrie drops hints in his tunes how to release him.

With the Hearth fiend, have them challenged to an eating contest. As fire, the fiend can eat anything and has no eating limit - except water. If the PC's can get him to 'eat' water he loses. To mix it up, have a game of "I bet you couldn't eat...."

Have a juggling contest, using the detached heads. Heads who complain and shriek. While you're trying to concentrate. And if the PC's can't juggle, you could always go bowling...

With their villager friends, have the traditional lively fey dance. Though mix things up a bit. The satyr selects the dance partners - the fighter gets a fey-donkey, the paladin gets a fey-turkey, etc. And if one of the dances is a 'Square dance' the caller shouts out ridiculous and embarrassing things for them to do - "Now everyone stop and doe-se-doe, punch your partner on the nose. Slap his face, kick his shin, all join arms and around again!". And of course if they are asked to switch positions with their partner... well let’s just say they may need to apparatus to fix things - or at least get used to donkey ears.

Have the PC's perform a play selected by the Satyr with a fey audience. One of the worst plays in existence. Have the players read aloud a few pages of The Eye Of Argon, or if you are feeling more generous - Fifty shades - to simulate the 'play'. Laughing means they lose, or worse - are turned into the plays characters.

When re-attaching the heads, play a game of Mastermind. Guess which head attaches to the right body. The mastermind game has some 'incorrect' guesses, the heads are attached to the wrong body. For more fun throw in some 'extra' heads (say a Jack-o-Lantern).

And if the PC's lose a game, they can always have another game to try and fix the damage from the first game outcome....
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Igor the Henchman »

Thanks a lot everyone! :) The session is tomorrow, and I've finally made my decision. The satyr will try to send them on a head-finding expedition (thank you, Lord_Pruitt!), followed by a dance contest (thank you, DustBunny!)

Here's how I intend this to go:

Encounter 1: the heroes return to the village to find the satyr had kidnapped three of the villagers. The missing people are found dancing mindlessly in the woods without their heads. One of them is carrying what appears to be a box with music coming from inside. Within the box is a fiddle-playing carrionnette, and a note from the satyr. The carrionnette will attack, trying to use its body-switching power to possess and impersonate one of the PCs. The note contains a poem hinting that the PCs need to find the missing heads to save the villagers, and points them to the direction of a goblins' lair where the PCs got almost-TPKed two sessions ago.

Encounters 2-3-4: the PCs hopefully get the hint and explore the goblins' now-deserted lair inside a hollow tree, until they've gathered all three heads. There won't be a lot of real danger, and they are already familiar with the layout, so hopefully this will go smoothly.

Encounter 5: the satyr confronts the PCs, accusing them of spoiling its fun at the village dance earlier in the adventure, and as punishment, challenges them to a dance contest, promising to restore the villagers to normal if they win. If the PCs refuse, this starts a final boss fight against the satyr. Defeating him will get them a magic sickle with a handle made of living wood that drips magic tree sap, which can be used to restore the villagers. If, however, they do accept challenge, the satyr creates the illusion of a Dementlieu ballroom and provides a beautiful dance partner for each PC (actually twig blights masked by illusion). As the PCs dance, the floor will cover with sharp thorns, in addition to the blights trying to drain them of blood. Characters who fall below 0 hit points to the blights' attacks will become paralyzed and slowly turn into trees unless healed in time.

Hopefully, the heroes will manage to find a clever way to turn the tables on the satyr or at least survive the ordeal! :twisted: The game is tomorrow, so fingers crossed! :D
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Lord_Pruitt »

Sounds evil. :twisted:
I like it. And you are more than welcome to the tiny idea.
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by DustBunny »

Can we get an after action report?

Did they get 'ahead' in the end, or did they come up short?
Are the PC's now known as 'twinkle toes' or were their moves considered 'wooden'? :wink:
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Igor the Henchman »

DustBunny wrote: Can we get an after action report?
Right! Absolutely. It went super well. :D

The players returned to the village to find a whole bunch of charmed villagers dancing in the streets after nightfall. The town had just been visited by the satyr. Everybody who had succeeded on their saving throw against his pan pipes was barricaded inside their house. One PC (the tavernkeeper/paladin) had a hard time convincing his own wife to open the door so he could get his equipment.

After they realized that the satyr had kidnapped the innkeeper and two village girls, the cleric of Belenus went on a spree of persuasion checks to get every named NPC he could find to give him additional fey-fighting gear "to make sure we're not missing anything". One healing potion, some alchemical fire and a cold-iron battleaxe later, he was finally ready to go rescue the missing villagers.

In the next scene, the PCs heard music in the woods and came upon the three missing villagers dancing mindlessly in a forest clearing. The satyr had replaced their heads with those of a cow, a donkey and a ram. The music was coming from a wooden box carried by one of the victims. One PC (the blacksmith/fighter) failed his horror check and became fascinated by the scene. He stopped the other PCs from touching the box, and cradled it in his arms.

At that moment, the carrionnette sprang from the box and pricked the PC with its body-swapping needle. Saving throw: failed. :twisted: I passed the player a note explaining he was now playing a magic impostor pretending to be him. The player immediately switched to a more high-pitched voice and claimed the doll for himself before the other PCs could examine it.

Not realizing what had happened, the PCs proceeded to study a message that was left for them inside the box. It was a poem that hinted that the villagers could be rescued if the PCs managed to find the missing heads. The satyr had hidden the heads inside a hollow tree "where goblins go to play". The description matched the goblin lair they had discovered (and got almost TPK'd in) earlier in the adventure.

As the heroes searched the hollow tree for the heads, the blacksmith/carrionnette was doing everything he could to sabotage their efforts. When the other players finally figured out something was wrong, he climbed a tree and tried to get away. There was a forest chase scene and the PCs finally caught the carrionnette and reversed the body swap.

The doll pleaded for its life, offering the PCs information on how to defeat its boss. It confirmed that the satyr had a magic lantern with a fire spirit trapped inside. Though evil, the spirit could become a potent ally to them if it was freed. In exchange for this information, they let it run away.

Next came a mini-dungeon crawl inside the now-deserted goblin lair. The PCs explored the tunnels beneath the tree's roots, and found the heads one by one. Not much happened here besides atmospheric fluff, and maybe that made it to be the creepiest part of the adventure. The heroes were expecting traps at every turn, but everything was eerily silent.

Then they had their first ever encounter with stitched zombies (from VRGttWD). The blacksmith got pretty freaked out when painful stitches started to appear on his skin after getting hit by the monsters, which prompted the cleric to douse them in alchemical fire and just let them burn to death. In the end, they got out of there with a sack of forgotten treasure and three moaning, catatonic human heads.

The final scene was their encounter with the satyr. I tried to do my best Puck impression, as the fey whined about how it was bored out of its skin in the desolate forests of Tepest, which had none of the entertainment and sophistication of his native Dementlieu. Playing the victim, he demanded that the PCs entertain him as payback for interrupting his fun at the village dance earlier in the adventure. When he challenged the PCs to a dance-off, the players decided the dancing would keep him distracted while they stole the lantern and sprung out the hearth fiend. They accepted the challenge.

The delighted satyr used an illusion to change the dark forest into a brightly lit ballroom and his twig blight minions into beautiful dancing girls. As the PCs danced, they managed to pierce the illusion long enough to locate the lantern. Meanwhile, the satyr used trick after trick to get them to slip, first turning the floor into ice, then making roots spring up from the ground to grab them, then having an insect swarm come after them.

Finally, the blacksmith/fighter decided that turnabout was fair play, and tried to trip the satyr. The villain failed his saving throw and fell smack into the ground. Enraged, he ordered his minions to attack. Before he could get back up, the blacksmith pinned him to the ground, preventing him from using his pan pipes. The panicked satyr awakened the hollow tree and ordered it to attack the blacksmith. The priest and paladin immediately concentrated on healing and buffing the blacksmith, while the fourth PC (brewer/fighter) tried to figure out how to free the hearth fiend from the lantern. Fortunately, he remembered some clues from two sessions ago and figured out he had to feed it some yew. That was the condition for ending the hearth fiend's servitude to the satyr.

In the end, by using magic fire and the cold-iron battleaxe, the PCs managed to slay the satyr. As soon as it died, the fey collapsed into a heap of brambles and bark, only leaving behind a pair of horns, a magic sickle and ten little gold buttons from his coat. After they reclaimed the buttons and the sickle, the cleric declared he would bury the unholy remains at the nearest crossroads to stop the fey from coming back.

Using the magic tree sap from the magic sickle's wooden handle, the PCs restored the innkeeper and the two girls to normal. The session ended with a funeral for the innkeeper's daughter, whose ghost (a corpse candle) had finally been lain to rest.

And thus, the PCs unwittingly created the origin story for a canon NPC.

Sorry for the wall of text, and thanks again to everyone who helped me with ideas for this adventure. The players loved it. :D
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Igor the Henchman »

Fun detail: every time they found one of the heads, I handed the players a Skittles egg. When they realized they were doing a twisted egg hunt, they laughed pretty hard. :lol:

OK, it spoiled the horror mood a little, but it was worth it. :)
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by DustBunny »

Igor the Henchman wrote:Fun detail: every time they found one of the heads, I handed the players a Skittles egg. When they realized they were doing a twisted egg hunt, they laughed pretty hard. :lol:
Sounds like everyone had fun. :D
Did they eat the heads .... I mean skittles?
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Igor the Henchman »

They sure did. Gifts of skittles are always well received at our table.
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Re: Ideas for a fey challenge

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

:slow clap:

That was awesome. Well done, Igor! Sounds like the perfect mix of horror, humor, and downright weirdness for a great fey adventure.
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